1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to local communication networks and, more particularly, to a short range RF network having dynamic routing and configuration capabilities.
2. Description of the Related Art
The availability of various types of communication devices produces a need to have these devices interact with each other in a manner which is cost efficient and which can be easily implemented. Such communication can occur between two or more terminal devices (e.g. telephones, computers, printers, facsimile machines, personal digital assistants (PDAs), etc.) by wired connection such as by connecting electrical conductors to the devices, or by wireless communication using infrared signals or radio frequency (RF) signals. For many applications, RF signals are preferred as they do not require line-of-sight interaction between a transmitter and a receiver of a terminal device pair.
Recently, low power RF systems have been proposed for providing communications between a plurality of transceivers through a short range link having a broadcast range of several meters. One such local RF system is currently under development and is referred to as xe2x80x9cBluetoothxe2x80x9d. This system will be commercially available in the near future and is designed to operate in the open spectrum around 2.4 gigahertz. The system operating in accordance with the Bluetooth specification will allow for devices such as mobile phones, computers, and other types of terminal devices which are located within an operable range of the RF system to communicate with each other.
Wireless relay networks also exist which, in effect, extend an operating range of a local RF system by utilizing relay devices to interface with and provide communication between two or more terminal devices. Such a network is disclosed in PCT Application No. WO 98/17032 wherein a plurality of communication nodes are wirelessly connected to each other and to a host device for providing numerous communication links for data to be communicated between the host and terminal devices interfaced with the nodes. A drawback of such a system, however, is that it does not provide for the efficient use of multiple available transmission paths to select, for example, the path that contains the least amount of data traffic at any given time and hence the fast transmission time.
The present invention is directed to a short range RF network having routing capabilities for communicating data between one or more terminal devices and/or a host among a select one of a plurality of communication paths. The inventive network includes a plurality of wireless transceiver beacons and a host device. The communication paths are established between the plurality of beacons and the host when the beacons are identified to the host. The communication paths are direct or indirect between two beacons or between a beacon and a host such that a select beacon may communicate directly with a host or indirectly through one or more intermediate beacons. Some or all of the beacons include a processor for determining, prior to transmission of data, the most-desired communication path among the plurality of paths. In this manner, the speed of data transfer to and from the host can be increased by dynamically selecting through the transmitting beacon, a most-desired communication path from a plurality of available communication paths based on an amount of data traffic handled by the network at any given time.
In a preferred embodiment the inventive short range RF network includes an intermediate beacon connected between an upstream beacon and a downstream beacon and means for routing the upstream beacon to the downstream beacon in the event the intermediate beacon malfunctions or otherwise becomes disabled.
Other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood, however, that the drawings are designed solely for purposes of illustration and not as a definition of the limits of the invention, for which reference should be made to the appended claims. It should be further understood that the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale and that, unless otherwise indicated, they are merely intended to conceptually illustrate the structures and procedures described herein.